The cricket world has been scrutinising Australia's whitewash of England with the squinty eye of a tourist offered a currency exchange on Kuta Beach. Sure, it looks enticing, but what is this 5-0 really worth?

Inseparable from a valuation of Australia's performance is one of England's. Was one team that good, or was it just allowed to have its way?

Recency is misleading, and England's final capitulation is the worst basis for assessment. After having their best day of the series, on December 27 in Melbourne, England went into freefall. The second half of their match at the MCG could easily be termed the poorest-ever performance by an England team until they superseded it in Sydney. By then, this England team was in a race to the bottom against itself.

Alastair Cook's side is unquestionably the worst English team to leave Australian shores. The whitewashed team of 1920-21 had been depleted by war, but still featured some greats in mid-career, such as Jack Hobbs, Wilfred Rhodes and Frank Woolley, who pushed Australia hard. The superstars of 1958-59 who lost 4-0 had their excuses in a grim series marred by illegal actions. Mike Denness' team of 1974-75 nearly beat Australia in one Test in Melbourne and thumped them in another, although the hosts, without Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson, were reduced to what the current group would surely be without Mitchell Johnson and Ryan Harris. The English teams who toured during the McGrath-Warne era at least fought back to win Tests in Australia, until 2006-07, but even then Andrew Flintoff's team only really dropped its bundle for a day in Adelaide and a day in Melbourne. Otherwise they gave a great Australian team a fight.

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Cook's fall from grace has been coeval with his team's. This captain can't be accused of not going down with his sinking ship. He was chief cook, bottle-washer, helmsman and anchor. And, if you ask Shane Warne, Cook was the iceberg too. But if these are the worst England players to skulk out of Australia in 136 years, they certainly weren't that when they left England, and here's a better valuation of Australia's role in all this. David Lloyd likens Cook's to a pub team, but aside perhaps from Scott Borthwick they didn't come here as pub cricketers. They were resounding Ashes winners, for a third straight time, in August. They had four of the top batsmen, one of the top wicketkeepers and three of the top bowlers in the world – just six weeks ago. If the series had been played on Xbox, only a broken joystick could have stopped England crushing Australia. Stuart Broad was still talking of this team as if they could be Manchester United, and it wasn't that far-fetched.

All sorts of reasons will be produced, but the one big cause of England's fall has been Australia. In Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, when England did still possess some vestigial self-belief, they didn't lose because they had suddenly become poor cricketers. They lost because Australia outplayed them. It's sport. One team is better. The other eventually wants to go home.

Fifth Test, Sydney - Day Three

So how good is this Australian team? We're about to find out, because they're about to measure themselves against the gold standard. South Africa have been the best team in the world since 2009, because they have consistently won away from home. They have won their past two Test series in Australia, bookending a series win in England. For most of that time, not only have they been the best, but the ICC's rankings system has mostly managed to rate them number one.

The anomaly about the South Africans, though, is they can be far less impressive on home pitches. In six series since their reinstatement to world cricket in 1991, South Africa have still not beaten Australia at home. Their own homeland is, against this opponent, their last frontier.

This record will hearten the Australians, who are now eager to test their resurgence against some real acid. They only have a month to wait. It is expected to be a bowlers' series, a shootout between the world's best pace attacks. South Africa have lost Jacques Kallis, but Hashim Amla, Graeme Smith and AB de Villiers remain, and Faf du Plessis still knows how to block out a draw. They have not, however, faced fast bowlers as potent as the 2013-14 vintage Australians. In the unlikely event that pitches offer spin, Nathan Lyon has established himself as superior to South Africa's best.

It's presumed that the Australian top order holds the key. Against Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander and Morne Morkel, the batsmen cannot keep depending on Brad Haddin to pull them out. They have to stop falling into the pit in the first place.

Whether they can do so will provide a footnote to the Ashes just past, the added information that tells us whether Australia were that good, or England that bad. And looking over the horizon, to other series including the 2015 Ashes, the same question recurs like a hall of mirrors. Australia have bowlers as far as the eye can see. But whether Michael Clarke, Chris Rogers and Shane Watson can tide the batting over to the next generational change, whether David Warner and Steve Smith can mature into champions who score consistently, and whether a new generation of batsmen is there at all - by posing those fundamental questions about Australia's batting strength, the South African series will be setting the tone for several years to come.

42 comments so far

It's going to be big! We're anticipating a great series. Played hard, but fair . . . with plenty of beer in between.

B

Commenter

BrandonF

Location

Joburg, South Africa

Date and time

January 06, 2014, 10:37PM

The Ashes series was the perfect storm - England were complacent and perhaps not as good as they thought they were and subsequently played dreadfully. The Australian players treated the series as the most important opportunity of their cricket careers and played out of their skins. It is less than 12 months ago that basically the same Australian team was similarly dreadful in India so things can change very quickly. Playing South Africa now is perfect timing for the Australians when they are playing such great cricket & their confidence is high. It is a great test against the benchmark in world cricket and it is a shame that it isn't a 5 test series. The series loss in Australia last season was perhaps an unfair reflection and may not have been the case had the selectors not picked a 3rd string attack in the deciding match.

Commenter

dean

Location

terranora

Date and time

January 07, 2014, 1:33AM

Australia really surprised me with their turnaround. Sure England did not play well but our bowling and fielding as well as Clarke's field placings were impressive. Our batting still lacks consistency and could be found out against Steyn & co. A resurgent Mitch Johnson and a team where Boof Lehmann helped restore self belief were a big part of England dropping their bundle.

Commenter

Country Boy

Date and time

January 07, 2014, 2:21AM

The last Ashes series in England was a lot closer than the 3-0 result suggested, and that was was down to the appointment of Darren Lehmann who has both unified the team and made the game enjoyable for the players again. That being said, it is reasonable to expect further positive development of the current team in South Africa. The retirement of Jacques Kallis is akin to Steve Waugh's departure from the Australian team and that alone is going to present South Africa with added challenge. As cricketers go, quite apart from his skill-level, Kallis delivered mental toughness and agility that bound his team mates and those aspects are not immediately evident in any of those that remain, and certainly not in captain Graeme Smith.

Commenter

Steve

Location

Arizona, USA

Date and time

January 07, 2014, 2:40AM

What the hell did I just read?

Graeme Smith is without doubt the most mentally powerful captain since, well, Steve Waugh himself.Ask anyone who knows international cricket and they will say the same.Watch his century during their 400-run chase in Perth.Watch his 93 off stuff-all balls during the 436-game at The Wanderers.Watch him walking out to bat with a broken hand against the bowler who just tore England limb from limb.Watch him hit back-to-back double-centuries against England as a 21-year-old captain in his first overseas tour.Watch him lead a team to the top of the world, to seven years undefeated away from home and four years undefeated anywhere in Test cricket.You need a serious lesson in cricket outside of Australia mate.

Commenter

Phat

Date and time

January 07, 2014, 10:40AM

3-0 beckons. I guess if all else fails to get the Saffers out, you can always bowl them out underarm. We will never forget 1981, or let you live it down.

Commenter

Ray

Location

Auckland

Date and time

January 07, 2014, 3:02AM

At least nobody got hurt. And we forgave Colin Meades long ago.

Commenter

Jomago

Location

Sydney

Date and time

January 07, 2014, 8:36AM

You're being a bit harsh on South Africa. More likely to be 2-1 or 2-0 to Australia.

Commenter

Stephen

Location

Sydney

Date and time

January 07, 2014, 10:22AM

1981.... that would be 33 years ago. Perhaps it is time to move on?

Commenter

Move on

Date and time

January 07, 2014, 11:17AM

Haha, the Kiwis will be squealing for Johnson, Harris etc. to bowl underam during the next Trans-Tasman series. Maybe you can stick to rugby and boat racing?